‘Please tell, sir,’ said Blenner.
‘I think it’s shock.’
‘Mine?’ asked Blenner.
‘Theirs,’ Kolea replied. ‘You have a reputation for… good humour. People forget you’re a commissar. You just reminded them. You executed a killer. You upheld the dictats and discipline of the Astra Militarum. You showed your true self to them. Give them a few days to reconcile that with the Blenner they know.’
‘Well, I suppose. That’s kind of you to say.’
‘And there are always duties,’ said Kolea. ‘Gendler was Meryn’s man, so I’d be looking at Meryn pretty hard right now if I was a commissar.’
‘Ah, well, ah… Fazekiel is in charge of the investigation,’ said Blenner nervously. ‘I can’t be involved in that, seeing as I was the one that pulled the trigger and all…’
‘I suppose,’ said Kolea. ‘But there’s always other work. You don’t have to be asked. Do the asking yourself. For a start, it smells like there are drains to be unblocked.’
‘I’m not unblocking drains, major,’ said Blenner with a waspish smile.
‘No, but you can order someone to,’ said Kolea. ‘Get on with things and make this situation better. Show them you don’t care what they think of you.’
‘Sage counsel, sir, thank you.’
‘Blenner?’
Blenner looked at him.
‘You did your job, and you saved her, didn’t you?’
‘I did, yes.’
‘Gaunt’s daughter, Blenner.’
‘Ah, Throne knows what that maniac Gendler might have done…’
‘Take pride in that, then. Gaunt knows what you did. Throne above, I know what it’s like to be a father. Despite everything.’
‘Despite…?’ Blenner asked.
‘What I mean is, that’s a bond that ties a man’s soul. Children. The future, and all that. If Gendler had threatened Yoncy, or Dal, I’d like to think a good man like you would have stood up to defend them. And I’d be blessed thankful for that. You did your job.’
Blenner looked almost embarrassed. Or ashamed. It was hard to read the expression on his face. For a moment, Kolea thought the commissar was going to blurt something out, as if he carried some awful burden he needed to set down.
‘Major,’ he said. His voice was hesitant. ‘Gol, I–’
Raised voices suddenly echoed down the hallway, and they both looked around.
‘Someone’s annoyed,’ said Blenner with forced lightness.
‘Indeed.’ Kolea looked back at Blenner. ‘You were going to say something.’
‘No, nothing,’ Blenner laughed. ‘Nothing, nothing. Just an idle… Really nothing.’
‘All right,’ said Kolea. ‘Let’s see what this is.’
Their spur of the undercroft hallway met another coming in from the vaults to the left. Baskevyl was arguing with a Munitorum overseer, with Bonin and Yerolemew looking on. The overseer’s three man work crew, lugging their equipment panniers and bulky in their yellow overalls, stood sheepishly behind their boss. A small crowd of women and support staff from the retinue was gathering to watch.
‘There’s nothing to unblock, sir!’ the overseer snapped.
‘There fething well must be!’ Baskevyl snarled back.
‘I’m telling you, I know my trade,’ the overseer retorted.
‘Fifteen centimetres of soil-water in the second and third billet halls would seem to suggest otherwise,’ said Bonin.
‘Do I tell you how to fight?’ asked the overseer.
‘Would you like to?’ asked Bonin, stepping forward.
‘Whoa,’ said Yerolemew, arresting Bonin’s arm with a tight grip.
‘Yeah, listen to the old chap,’ the overseer said. ‘We haven’t come down here to do no brawling.’
‘You misunderstand,’ the old bandmaster told him. ‘I just wanted it fair. Start with me, and see how you get on against a one-armed man. Then you can have a crack at the big time.’
The crowd laughed at this. The overseer blinked rapidly.
‘We’ve checked the drains through to the north outfall,’ he said. ‘There’s nothing blocked. I don’t know where the water’s coming from.’
‘What about the lights?’ asked Baskevyl.
‘Circuit systems is on a different docket,’ said the overseer. ‘My docket says waste overflow.’
‘Your docket is about to say “ow, my face hurts”,’ said Yerolemew.
‘Gentlemen,’ said Kolea, stepping in.
They looked at him. A broad smile crossed Baskevyl’s face.
‘Gol,’ he said, and gave Kolea a hug. Blenner looked on from the edge of the group. That was how good comrades greeted each other. He sighed.
‘Back on duty?’ Baskevyl asked.
‘Back on the slog,’ said Kolea. ‘And not before time, looks like.’ He glanced at the overseer. ‘What’s your name?’ he asked.
‘Taskane,’ the man replied. ‘Technician, first class.’
‘I’m Kolea. Major Kolea. My company, we were pretty pleased to be staying in a palace for the duration. But it’s hardly palatial.’
‘Well, I grant you–’
‘Taskane, I know you’ve got orders. Dockets, in fact. So have I. The Lord Executor wants his personal regiment well taken care of.’
‘The Lord Executor?’ asked Taskane.
‘You’ve heard of him?’
‘Well, of course.’
‘He’s an absolute bastard,’ said Kolea. ‘Kill you as soon as look at you. We don’t want that. We don’t want complaint reports filed with names on them, do we? What’s that form again?’
‘K 50715 F,’ said Blenner quickly, trying not to grin.
‘That’s the very one, commissar,’ said Kolea. ‘Thank you. Oh, and commissar? Please keep your weapon holstered. This isn’t a discipline matter.’ He looked at Taskane and pulled a face. ‘He’s a right bastard too,’ he whispered. ‘We don’t want to get him riled up.’
‘We do not, sir,’ said Taskane.
‘So we’ve got water, backflooding.’
‘I explained this, sir.’
‘Soil water too, so from the latrines not the drinking supply. So that’s a hygiene matter, which will bring in the Medicae.’
‘I’ve explained,’ said Taskane. ‘It’s the weather. Unseasonal quantities of rain, backing up the waste flows. We’ve checked the pipework.’
‘You could check it again, though?’ asked Kolea. ‘I mean, a thorough double-check. Thorough never hurt, did it? Then maybe pole it out with extenders. Run a rod right through?’
‘I could do that…’ Taskane began.
‘Then flush the whole system with a chem-sluice. It’s old, stone built, so there’s no danger of corroding metal pipe. And if that fails, you could set up a pump or two, and evacuate the flood water using suction tubes.’
Taskane hesitated. ‘How come you know so much?’ he asked.
‘I was a miner before I took to soldiering,’ said Kolea. ‘I know how to dry-down a flooded section. Lives depended on it.’
‘Well, I can imagine…’
‘But I’m no expert,’ said Kolea. ‘Not municipal, like this. That’s your area. I’ll bet with your skills, you can get this handled by nightfall.’
‘We’ll get to it, sir,’ said Taskane. He glanced at his men and directed them back the way they’d come. ‘And we’ll take a look at the circuit system too,’ said Taskane. ‘The problems could be related.’
‘I appreciate it, overseer,’ said Kolea. ‘The Emperor rewards diligent service.’
The overseer and his team trudged back down the hall towards the flooded section.
‘Direct orders from the Lord Executor?’ Bonin asked.
‘I may have re-worked the actual truth a little there,’ Kolea said with a smile. ‘Then again, I think there was a little invention at work with the complaint forms too.’
Blenner winked. ‘Made the whole fething thing up,’ he said.